Slipping
by Bleachhead88
Summary: Something is happening to Ishida as he begins to hallucinate.  Will he be able stay on the correct side of sanity?  Will he even be able to tell where that line lies?  Will his friends be able to help him figure it all out?
1. Chapter 1

A/n: Hello all! So here's another little Ishida whumping fic, but I thought I'd focus on some psychological whumping this time. As always, please let me know if you find mistakes so I can correct them since I don't have a beta.

I have finally gotten around to watching some of the newest season, but this fic ignores that anyway. Though, depending on how this current arc plays out, this might still work in cannon… who knows?

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. And, since I realized after I had already gotten the outline worked this bares a certain amount of resemblance to a Buffy episode, I should mention that I do not own that either. Not a crossover fic, just thought I should cover my bases due to similarities.

Act I

Ishida gasped with a start as his eyes flew open. He hadn't realized that he had been asleep. Only a moment ago he had been sighting down a hollow, preparing to destroy it before it could attack Inoue. Now he was seemingly waking up in a small, cool, white room. He was lying on his side on the floor but the floor seemed strangely squishy.

As he tried to sit up, he got another shock. He couldn't move his arms at all. Looking down at his body he saw that he was strapped securely into a white straight jacket. His arms were wrapped around his body, completely useless.

"What…?" he gasped as he tried to sit up again. This time, knowing that his arms were useless, he managed to get up. "What… What is this?" he said as he looked around wildly. He could see now that the white room he was in was completely padded. It didn't take him long to add up the white padded room and his current straight jacket position for him to figure out exactly where he was. But what he couldn't figure out was how he had gotten there or why.

"Hello?" he called out. He saw that there was door across from him with a single small window inset at eye level. It was double panned with wire mesh in between the panes. This was a maximum security room. "Hello? Is anyone out there?" he called as he struggled to get to his feet.

He wanted to fix his glasses at that point but his arms were still strapped and then he realized that he wasn't wearing them. He blinked and looked around again. Yes, he definitely wasn't wearing his glasses. It had been hard to notice before with plain, white room, but now he could tell that there was a slight blurry edge to everything.

"Of course," he muttered as he started to walk around. "If I broke them I could use them to hurt myself. Standard operation for an asylum."

But this wasn't a standard situation for him. He shouldn't be there. He was supposed to be outside, fighting hollows and protecting his friends. He wasn't a crazy person so why was he in here? Try as he might, he couldn't even begin to remember how it was that he had gotten there.

Suddenly there came a sound at the door. Someone was unbolting it. He stopped his pacing and turned around to face the entrance as it swung open silently. There was a large man standing on the other side dressed all in white. "So, you're awake?" he said as he stepped inside. He walked slowly and cautiously towards Ishida.

"Are you feeling better now, Ishida-san?" the man asked.

Ishida just stood there and stared at him a moment, wondering what in the world was going on. "Uryuu," a familiar voice said from the door. Ishida turned his attention from the man and looked back towards the entrance. There, framed in the doorway, was Ryuken. "Son, please don't scare us like that."

Uryuu's mouth dropped open. "Ryuken…" he muttered.

A sad frown pulled at Ryuken's lips. It was not an expression that Ishida was used to seeing there. His father rarely showed any emotion but disappointment. Now, all that Ishida could see was genuine sorrow.

"Uryuu, I'm your father. Why do you insist on calling me by my name?" Ryuken walked into the room and held his arms out towards Ishida. "What have I done to earn that treatment?"

Ishida took a step back. This wasn't his father. This couldn't be the man that had shunned him and drove him away time and time again. This wasn't the same uncaring man that had mercilessly shot at him to "train," him to get his Quincy powers back. This man standing before him was what his father should have been but never was… caring.

"Who are you?" Ishida couldn't help but ask.

"I'm sorry, sir," the white clad man said. "It looks like he's regressed again."

"Regressed? What are you talking about?" Ishida said, looking between the two men. "Who are you? Why am I here?"

"Son," Ryuken said with a level of patience and caring that just shouldn't have been there. "You're in the hospital. You've been here for nearly a year. Don't you remember, Uryuu? You had a break down. You've never been able to get over your grandfather's death. But you were getting better until just a day ago."

"A year? No, I just woke up here. I was outside. I was protecting Inoue-san. Where is she? Is she all right?" He was beginning to get frantic. He didn't like what this situation was doing to him. He wasn't one to lose his cool but this was too strange. Nothing here made any sense.

Ryuken and the orderly exchanged a look before Ryuken said with a heavy sigh. "Inoue… that girl again? I thought you had finally accepted that she wasn't real, Uryuu."

"Not real! What are you talking about?" he was on the verge of completely losing his demeanor. "I was just with her. The hollow was about to bite her only a moment ago but I was here before I could shoot it!"

"Uryuu!" Ryuken snapped. It was almost his normal self. It was a shout of frustration, but there was still a hint of pain and sadness behind his shout. "Uryuu," he repeated softly, putting his frustration under control again. "It's not real, son. There are no such things as hollows. This girl, Inoue Orihime, she doesn't exist. Neither does that boy, Kurosaki. You are not a group of heroes that protect the town from unseen spirits. Please…" his voice was almost pleading as he took another step towards Ishida. "Please, Uryuu, remember. Remember what you had achieved only a day ago. You knew all this yesterday."

Ishida took another step backward. His back connected with the back of the wall. "No…" he muttered and began to slip downward as his knees gave out on him. "No… this isn't real. This is the lie…" he muttered again and closed his eyes.

_"Ishida-kun,"_ he heard a soft, distant voice sigh in his mind.

"Uryuu… please don't leave me again," his father's voice pleaded to him.

_"Ishida-kun!"_ the other voice was louder now. He knew the voice. It was Inoue. She was calling out to him.

"Don't you hear her?" Ishida said and tried to open his eyes again to look at Ryuken but he couldn't manage to lift his lids.

"ISHIDA-KUN!"

His eyes suddenly snapped open and he was now standing in the park again, staring into Inoue's frightened and worried eyes. She had a bloody gash running down the left side of her face and her eyes were filled with tears.

"In…Inoue-san," he gasped. He took a step back and realized that he was once again in his Quincy uniform and his arms were free again.

"Oh, Ishida-kun!" Inoue gasped in relief and pulled him into a tight hug. "What happened to you? You went all blank faced and suddenly froze. I thought that something horrible had happened!"

"In…Inoue-san… what…?" he looked around wildly, trying to spot where the hollow had gone but he didn't see any sign on it. "What happened? How did I get back here?"

She released her hold on him and looked up into his eyes. "Back? Ishida-kun. You never left. You've been standing in the same spot for nearly ten minutes."

"Ten…" he muttered in wonder. "Wait, the hollow, what happened?" he looked down at her and noticed the blood on her face again. "Inoue-san, you're hurt!"

She shook her head and stepped back as he reached for her face. "It's nothing, Ishida-kun," she told him. "I heard you drawing your bow, that's what warned me about it before it attacked. I was just a little too slow to completely dodge the attack."

"Inoue-san…" he said, hardly able to believe that he had been the reason she had been hurt. If whatever happened hadn't distracted him, she wouldn't have had to dodge in the first place.

"I'm fine, Ishida-kun!" she said quickly. "You saved me! I was able to dodge in time and use Tsubaki to scare it off. It didn't like having its arm nearly cut off." She gave him a smile but he knew that it didn't completely reach her heart. She was worried about him.

He shook his head, not wanting to think about what could have happened if she hadn't been able to dodge that attack. "We should get that looked at, Inoue-san," he said as he turned his head away from her and adjusted his glasses.

"Oh… ah, yeah. How about we go see Urahara-san? We're not too far away from the shop."

He hesitated a moment. He knew exactly why she had suggested the ex-Shinigami. It wasn't because of her injury, but because of what had just happened to him. But he nodded and turned towards the shop. "Yes, that would be best I think," he said.

Inoue was right, he needed to figure out what it was that had just happened to him and Urahara was the most likely one to be able to figure something like this out. But if he couldn't… what was he going to do? If something like that happened again, the consequences could easily be much worse than a nasty cut on Inoue's face…

XXX

"Well, that is certainly a strange story," Urahara said from behind his fan after Ishida had finished explaining everything that he had experienced. "I can't say I know what happened to you. It sounds almost as if you had been caught in an illusion much like Ririn can create, but it seems to have been even more complete than even she can produce. You said that Inoue-san said you were just standing there during that time?"

He nodded.

"Well, in your vision, or hallucination, or whatever it was, you had been moving around. When Ririn creates an illusion, the person still moves and interacts in the actual space as if they were in the illusion. But it sounds as if you had gone catatonic for a moment rather than remain actually active."

Ishida nodded again. "I had that thought too. I wondered if it had been something like that, but there was no one else there besides the hollow and Inoue-san and that hollow was far too low a level to be able to do something like that."

Urahara snapped his fan shut and placed it back in his sleeve as he eyed Ishida for a moment. "Well, it is possible that there was something there that you couldn't sense. Though I wonder if maybe you are just under too much stress?"

"Stress? You think that I hallucinated all of that?"

Urahara shrugged. "It's not really all that uncommon. You don't have to be crazy to have waking dreams like this. You have been under a lot of pressure ever since Aizen's defeat now that you and the others have had to step up and take care of the majority of the hollows with Kurosaki's powers waning. And you have to admit that you certainly haven't really had any downtime pretty much since you met Kurosaki about a year ago."

"What…" Ishida muttered. "What did you say?"

"What?" Urahara asked confused. "About you not having much downtime?"

"No, about how long it's been since I met Kurosaki…"

"Well, let's see… Yes, I'd say it's been about a year now, hasn't it?"

The sound of Ryuken's voice echoed in Ishida's ears. _"You've been here for about a year. Don't you remember, Uryuu?"_

"A year…" he muttered. "That's how long he said that I had been in the hospital."

Urahara eyed Ishida closely a moment until the Quincy suddenly pulled himself out of his thoughts. "Thank you, Urahara-san. You may be right. Maybe I should just get some rest."

Urahara forced a smile and stood up. "That's a good idea. Though I'll look into things for you just to be safe."

Ishida stood up and offered a slight bow to the shopkeeper saying, "Thank you again, Urahara-san. I think I will go check up on Inoue-san and then head home."

Ishida turned and left Urahara standing in the room, staring after the Quincy. "Hmm…" he muttered before he turned and headed directly to his lab. He had a feeling that he had his work cut out for him on this one.

XXX

"Inoue-san?" Ishida called as he cautiously poked his head into the next room.

Inoue turned and looked towards the door and gave Ishida a big smile. "Ishida-kun! Look, Tessai-san has completely healed me. I told you I would be fine!" She got up and walked over to Ishida as he pushed the door open a little further and entered the room.

"I am glad to hear that, Inoue-san," Ishida told her as he stared down at the place where the gash had been on her face. It was completely healed without so much as a scar. But in his mind, he could still see the injury and he knew that it had been his fault.

"Did Urahara-san have any idea what happened?" Inoue asked him hesitantly. It was clear that she was worried about him but didn't want to let it show.

"He didn't know for sure, but he suggested that maybe I just need to get some rest. I have been rather stressed for some time now."

She nodded to him. "Yes, I'll walk you home, Ishida-kun! And if you want, I can make you some soup or something while you rest up!"

Ishida tried his hardest to keep from cringing at the thought of Inoue's cooking. "I would welcome the company home, Inoue-san. But I think that maybe I should just spend some time alone for a while after that. I have plenty to eat in my house, but thank you."

She smiled at him and nodded. They left the shop together and headed for his apartment. They walked most of the way in silence but Inoue broke it as his place came into view. "Ishida-kun, are you sure that you should be alone right now?"

Ishida looked at her, puzzled at what she was getting at. "I mean…" she quickly ploughed ahead. "When you went all still, you had me really worried. If something like that happens again while you're alone, you might not snap out of it."

He frowned slightly as he thought about it but kept walking. "You may be right, Inoue-san. But having people over wouldn't let me rest very well, now would it?"

She frowned a moment and then brightened and said. "How about I talk to Kurosaki-kun and Sado-kun and we can just check up on you, at least for over the weekend?"

He gave her a slight smile and said, "I think that would be fine, Inoue-san. Though I wish you wouldn't worry about me so much. Urahara-san is probably right; it's probably just stress."

"Oh I'm sure too!" she said quickly. "But just in case… I would really feel bad if something bad were to happen to you, Ishida-kun."

By now they had reached his apartment. "Thank you Inoue-san," he told her as he pulled out his key and opened his door.

"You're welcome, Ishida-kun! I'll come by with Sado-kun and Kurosaki-kun, just for a short visit, tomorrow."

"Thank you again, Inoue-san," he told her and stepped through the door. "Be careful walking home."

"Mm," she replied with a nod and quickly turned around and walked away. He stood in his doorway a moment and watched her leave, walking down the sidewalk in the failing light. After a moment he sighed and then closed the door and went to his room. He didn't waist much time to get into his pjs and climb into bed. He was really feeling exactly how exhausted he was for what felt like the first time in a very long time.

He laid down on his bed and placed his glasses on the stand beside his bed and quickly drifted off to sleep.

XXX

No sooner had he fallen asleep than he suddenly opened his eyes again. He was looking up at an entirely different ceiling than the one that he had fallen asleep under. He tried to sit up quickly, but he was shocked to find that his body had been strapped down with padded leather straps to the bed he was lying on.

"What… no, not again," he said with a slight edge of panic as he tried to struggle against the restraints. "It's a dream… I have to be dreaming…"

"Uryuu?" a groggy voice said in the darkened room off to his right.

He looked over and saw his fath… Ryuken… starting to sit up straight in the chair in the corner in the room. He appeared to have just woken up and had been leaning against the wall as he slept in the chair. He picked up a book off of his chest and sat it down on the table beside him before he stood up and walked over to where Ishida was lying.

"I'm so glad you came back again, Uryuu," Ryuken said when he was standing over his son.

"Ryu…Dad," Ishida decided that maybe he could find out more about what was going on if he would just play along with the delusion. "Why am I strapped here?" he asked as he looked around the room. It was a plain gray room with only the bed, chair and table in it. There was also a small rolling tray on the other side of his bed that currently only held a cup and pitcher of water.

Ryuken walked around the bed to the tray and started to poor a glass of water. "It was for your own protection, Uryuu," he explained gently. "Here," he held the cup close to Ishida's lips. "You must be thirsty."

He was, in fact, feeling quite thirsty. He opened his mouth slightly and allowed Ryuken to help him take a drink. When Ryuken took the cup back, he looked up at person who looked like his father again and decided to try again. "Dad, please tell me, why do I need to be protected from myself?"

Ryuken looked down sadly at his son before he walked around the bed and grabbed the chair that he had been sleeping in a short while ago. He pulled the chair over to Ishida's bedside and took a seat. "Uryuu, I've had to explain these things to you before and every time I think that you might finally be able to remember them, but you always forget again."

"Dad, please, I need to know what it going on."

Ryuken sighed and then proceeded. "Most of the time, you are catatonic, Uryuu. You disappear into your own mind and nothing we say or do reaches you."

"Catatonic…" Ishida muttered. He remembered what Urahara had said about how he had appeared when he had this vision before. He had described it with the same word.

"Other times…" Ryuken pressed on. "You become violent and seem to be acting out some of whatever it is that you are seeing. You had a particularly bad episode last night. That's why they had isolated you before. They restrained you now as a precaution."

Ishida looked down at his body and saw how tightly he had been bound. He couldn't move at all in this position and it was incredibly unnerving. "No, this can't be real…" he muttered.

"Uryuu, please stop saying that," Ryuken said in anguish.

Ishida looked at his father in surprise. He had never heard his father speak to him with such a level of emotion. Even when he was angry with him, he never let that much emotion leak into his words.

"You don't understand, Uryuu…" Ryuken said as he turned his head aside slightly. The glimmer of light from the moon outside caught and refracted off of something on his father's face. Ishida was shocked to realize that it was a tiny drop of moisture. "I don't know how much more I can take of you denying me… denying who you are…"

"Dad… I, I don't understand. What is happening to me?" Ishida asked, feeling panic beginning to rise inside of his chest again.

"Please, Uryuu," Ryuken said as he leaned forward. "You're all I have left. Please, come back to me."

"Dad…" there came a soft knock at the door then. His father looked up as the door opened a crack and a voice called into the room.

_"Ishida-kun,"_ the voice said.

Suddenly Ishida felt exhausted and he couldn't keep his eyes open a moment longer.

As he let his lids slide close he heard the knock again, but this time it was much louder. "Oi! Ishida!" a voice called.

With a gasp, Ishida sat bolt up right in bed. He was sweating and breathing heavily as his heart pounded in his chest. "Ishida!" the voice called again with an even louder knocking.

"Kurosaki…" Ishida gasped as he was finally able to orient himself back in his bedroom and realize who it was that was knocking at his door.

"I…I'll be right there!" he called through the small apartment as he scrambled out of bed and reached for a clean set of clothes. It was only moments later that he was at his door and opening it to the slightly worried faces of his three closest friends. "I'm sorry…" he said quickly. "I…I must have over slept."

Inoue was the first to break her worried expression and smile at him. "It's all right Ishida-kun. That's what you're supposed to be doing!"

"Yeah…" Ichigo muttered as he eyed Ishida closely. "I guess you're taking this rest thing seriously. It's nearly noon." He stepped forward and nudged his way into the apartment.

Ishida didn't have much choice but to allow them all to enter. "Yes…" Ishida said as he quickly tried to think of what to tell them. "I guess I have been a little more tired than I had thought."

"Are you feeling better?" Chad asked.

"Oh, ah, yes. I think so," he quickly lied. In fact, he was feeling far worse than when he had lain down to go to sleep the night before.

"That's great, Ishida-kun!" Inoue exclaimed as she grabbed a spot on the couch beside Ichigo.

"Yes, well," Ishida said as he nervously adjusted his glasses. "I think that I might want another day or two before getting back to work, if that's all right with all of you?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed slightly as Chad nodded and Inoue exclaimed how that would be a great idea and assured Ishida that they could take care of things for as long as he needed. Inoue then took over the conversation and babbled on about things that she had been doing and what she and the other two boys planned to do that day. Finally she ran out of things to say and suggested that maybe they should let Ishida get some more rest.

"Yes, thank you Inoue-san," he said as he stood up to show them out of his place. "Thank you all for checking up on me."

Chad nodded and Inoue smiled at him as they filed out. Ichigo was last to leave. He paused in the door as the other two walked away. "Ishida," he said softly to the Quincy. "I know that you're not really feeling better. I also know that you want to work this out for yourself. Just remember, we want to be there for you."

Ishida looked at Ichigo, rather startled by the Shinigami's words. "Kurosaki…" he muttered.

"Just think about it, Ishida," he said and then followed after his other two friends.

XXX

Ishida did think about it, but nothing more happened to him that weekend. The trio came back to visit him the next day and then he saw them all at school the following day on Monday. He was walking home with all of them after class that day, thinking that he was over whatever had happened to him, when they all suddenly stopped short in their walk and turned to look off into the distance.

"Hollow," Chad muttered.

Ichigo reached for his badge but Inoue grabbed his hand and said, "We should be fine, Kurosaki-kun." He looked at her in disappointment but let go of the badge and then over at Ishida. "You think you're up for this again, Ishida?" he asked.

He nodded and pushed his glasses up as he said, "I'm much better now. Let's get going." He turned then with Inoue and Chad and they all raced off towards the hollow that they could sense, leaving Ichigo behind.

When the found the hollow, it only took a minute for them to slay it. It was a large beast that had spikes in its tail that it could throw. Inoue used her shield to block the thrown spikes while Chad knocked it into position for Ishida to finish off with his arrows.

Inoue and Chad had just turned and started to walk back the way they came as Ishida walked back a little bit, thinking that he might have sensed something else. Suddenly he turned around just as another hollow stepped out of a Garganta between him and the other two.

It didn't seem to even notice Ishida as it lunched after Chad, who was slightly closer to it. "Sado!" Ishida called out and started to raise his hand to summon his bow, but his arm was suddenly too heavy to lift.

"No…" he gasped as he realized what was happening. He looked up and saw Chad just starting to turn around. "Sado…" Ishida tried to call out again but his voice had suddenly gotten weak and it only came out as a whisper.

Everything went black for a second as he tried to scream Chad's name again. "Sado!" he suddenly yelled out and opened his eyes. He was sitting in bed again in that same small gray room from his dream the other night. "No, Sado!" he called again as he gasped for breath. He couldn't afford to be there right now. Chad was about to be attacked and Inoue was nearby. They needed him.

"Ishida-san," a familiar voice called gently to him as a large arm reach out and restrained him from leaping form his bed. "Ishida, I'm right here," the voice said again.

Ishida turned and looked at the person that was holding him down and speaking to him. He gasped in surprise as he found that he was looking up at Sado, now dressed in white scrubs. "Sado… how?"

"It's all right, Uryuu. You see, you're friend is fine," a calm voice said from across the room. It was an older man in a white doctor's coat.

"Who… who are you?" Ishida asked.

The man sighed slightly before he said. "I'm doctor Anji… you're psychiatrist, Uryuu. We've been working together for a year now. Don't you remember?"

"Doctor Anji…" Ishida said. He looked back up at Sado. He was still holding Ishida down.

"I think you can let him go now, Sado-san," Anji said. Sado gently released his hold on Ishida and took a step back.

"I don't understand…" Ishida said. "Why are you here, Sado?"

"He works here, Uryuu," Anji told him. "He's been the day orderly here since you arrived. You have been friends during the brief times that you have been lucid Uryuu."

"Sado…" Ishida looked up at Sado and he smiled at him.

"That's right, Ishida," Sado said. "I've been looking out for you."

Ishida suddenly gave a gasp and tried to get up again. "No! You're in danger! I have to get back!"

Sado reached out and grabbed Ishida again and pinned him to the bed. "Uryuu, please calm down," Dr. Anji said. "That's not real. Sado is fine."

"Ishida, I'm all right. You don't need to save me," Chad said to him.

"No! No, you have to let me go!" he couldn't take it anymore. He was truly beginning to feel as if he had completely lost his mind. "Let be go back! I have to go back!"

"We're going to have to sedate him, I'm afraid," Anji said as he stood up and pulled a vial from the pocket of his coat. He pulled a syringe from the other pocket and inserted it into the vial.

"NO!" Ishida screamed as he struggled against Chad's grip. "You don't understand; I have to get back!"

"Strap him down, Sado," Anji said as he finished filling the syringe.

The leather straps were suddenly wrapped around his body and pulled tight. Uryuu gasped and struggled against them. "Wait… I can't breath…" he gasped. The straps were too tight. They felt as if they were crushing his chest.

"Just calm down Ishida," Chad told him.

_"Ishida-kun…"_ Ishida was beginning to anticipate that call now. It was Inoue calling him back again.

"Inoue-san!" he called out. He needed to get back. He didn't want this man to stab him with that needle. "Inoue-san!"

_"Ishida-kun! Sado-kun!"_ her voice was much louder now. Suddenly the needle was jabbed into his arm.

Ishida gasped as he opened his eyes again. At first, he was shocked that he was still having difficulty breathing. He felt trapped by a weight on top of his chest, but he couldn't really see anything yet.

"Chad!" he heard Ichigo's voice exclaim. Suddenly the weight was lifted off of his chest and he could see and breathe again.

"Inoue, help him!" Ichigo cried out in a worried voice.

Ishida sat up and saw Ichigo standing nearby having transformed into his Shinigami form. He was standing over Chad who was lying on the ground with a pool of blood spreading out below his very still body. Inoue was running up and quickly knelt beside Chad and called out her healing field.

"Sado…" Ishida said as he stared at his friend unable to process what he was looking at.

Ichigo suddenly turned around and looked at him. He took three swift steps before he was standing over Ishida and he reached down and grabbed the Quincy by his collar. He lifted him up off of the ground so the startled Quincy was staring him directly in the eye. "What the hell happened?" Ichigo growled at him.

"I…I don't know…" he gasped out. He tried to look around Ichigo to see how Chad was doing, but Ichigo shook him hard and drew his attention back.

"You said that you were better, Ishida!" he snapped.

"I thought I was… I…" But he was at a complete loss of words.

"Kurosaki-kun," Inoue called over to them. "It wasn't his fault…"

"Yes it was!" Ichigo cried as he let go of Ishida with a shake, causing the disoriented young man to stumble backward. Ichigo raised a finger and pointed it at Ishida accusingly. "He was injured while saving you!"

Ishida gasped and looked back at Chad. His face suddenly winced in pain as he started to come back to consciousness. "He threw himself on you to protect you from the hollow when you suddenly froze. He took that wound for you, Ishida!"

"No…" Ishida muttered and took a step back. "No, I was trying to warn him…"

"You did, Ishida-kun," Inoue said gently to him.

"Yeah, that was the last useful thing you did," Ichigo snapped. "You warned him in time to dodge but then the thing turned on you and you wouldn't move."

Ishida stared at Chad in disbelief. "I… I…" he looked up again at Ichigo's enraged face.

"If I hadn't turned up, you both would have been dead," the Shinigami told him.

Ishida swallowed and looked around wildly. This couldn't be happening… he couldn't be the cause of this… something was extremely wrong here.

"Ishida-kun…" Inoue's worried voice called to him. He met her gaze and saw all of the fear and worry that she had for him and that was the last straw. He couldn't take her pity and Ichigo's anger along with his own guilt all at once.

He spun around and fled…

_What's happening to me…_ he thought. _I can't be slipping like this… This just can't be happening._

XXX

It was the following day that Ishida didn't wake up when Ichigo knocked at his door again. The Shinigami was feeling horrible about how he had treated his ailing friend the day before. He had meant to apologize to the Quincy at school that day, but he had never showed up.

Inoue told him that he had to go and see Ishida. She was clearly extremely worried about their friend but felt that Ichigo was the one that needed to go to him this time.

"Ishida!" he called again as he pounded on the door again. "Come one, Quincy, I know you're in there."

Still there was no response. Ichigo sighed and leaned up against the door. "Ishida, I'm sorry. I should never have yelled at you like that yesterday. I'm not angry with you any more and Chad is just fine now. Please, let me in."

Nothing.

Ichigo was beginning to get rather worried. He walked around and glanced in through a window. All he could see was a darkened room. There was no evidence of any movement but he could just barely sense that Ishida was still inside.

Looking around, he checked to see if anyone was watching. When he saw that the coast was clear, he pushed the window open and climbed inside. "Ishida," he called again now that he was standing in the Quincy's living room.

He could hear rhythmic breathing coming from the adjoining room but there was no response. "Come on, Ishida," Ichigo called again feeling very worried about his friend now. He walked into the bedroom and saw Ishida lying on the bed, staring glassy eyed up at the ceiling.

"Ishida!" he called and rushed over to his friend's side. He shook Ishida's shoulders and called his name again, but there was still no response. "Come one you damn Quincy," he said in frustration. "Snap out of it all ready!"

XXX

"Are you hearing voices again, Uryuu?" Dr. Anji asked him.

Uryuu cocked his head to the side and replied, "Yes, I think that I hear Kurosaki calling to me."

"Don't you want to go to him?"

Uryuu thought a moment and then shook his head, "No, I don't think that I do."


	2. Chapter 2

Act II

"Uryuu, you really are making some impressive improvement," Dr. Anji congratulated Uryuu. "You normally don't stay lucid much longer after you hear one of their voices. I'm glad that you are finally at least making an effort to stay with us."

Uryuu looked back at the doctor and for the first time that he had found himself in this world felt that he really did belong there. "Where is my father?" he asked Anji.

"He's here. He usually will come to our sessions, remember Uryuu? He's just waiting until I invite him."

Ishida shook his head, "No, I don't remember. I still can't believe that he cares enough to be here at all."

Anji smiled slightly at Uryuu and pushed a button on his phone. "You can send Ryuken in now, nurse," he said. A moment later Uryuu's father entered the room.

"Hello, Uryuu. I hear you're feeling a little better today."

"Your son is making some progress today, Ryuken. You should be very proud."

He looked at Uryuu and smiled. "I am always proud of my son."

Ishida stared back at him in wonder. "You… You are?"

"Of course," he replied and came over and sat in the chair beside Uryuu. He reached out and took one of his son's hands and told him earnestly. "You are my son; how could I not be proud of who you are."

"That," Anji said. "I believe is the crux of our problem."

Uryuu looked back at the doctor, wondering what he was talking about. "Uryuu, I think that you are not proud of yourself. That is why you keep retreating to this other world of yours. It is a world where you have super powers and are surrounded with friends that have similar powers."

"But, it's so real…" he muttered.

"Of course it is," the doctor told him. "It's a world where everything that you have lacked in this life comes true. You are surrounded by friends that care for you and need you."

"I… I'm not here?"

His father clasped his hand that he was still holding a little tighter and said, "You've a few friends, but you were always too shy to make any real connections. I fear that might be my fault…"

"Ryuken," the doctor said. "We've talked about this…"

"Yes, of course doctor. I can't take the blame…"

Uryuu looked between the two of them and shook his head. "I don't understand. Why would I create all of those things? So many horrible things have happened to me there…"

"But you always come out on top, do you not?" the doctor asks. "A great delusion is one where there is strife that you are able to over come. How about we go back to the root of our problem. Tell me, Uryuu, what you remember of your grandfather's death."

Uryuu swallowed and looked at his father. He had never talked to his father about Soken's death. He always felt that his father didn't really care or just plain didn't want to hear about it.

"Go on, Uryuu. You've told it all before, remember?"

He didn't but he started to talk anyway. "We… we had been out in the woods and… and a group of hollows attacked us."

He looked up at the doctor. Anji just stared back at him, waiting for him to continue. "He told me to run and I did, but I didn't go far. I hid behind a tree and watched him fight them off. I wanted to help, but I was too afraid…"

"Go on, Uryuu," Anji said as Ishida paused again.

"The Shinigami didn't show up until… until after he was already dead. I… I watched the hollows murder him in front of me and I could do anything about it."

The doctor nodded and then stood up from behind his desk and walked around it to sit at the edge in front of Ishida. "Uryuu, that is very close to what happened. Of all of your delusions, this one is the closest to being true. Do you want to hear what really happened that day?"

Uryuu just stared up at the doctor not sure what he wanted anymore. "You were out with your grandfather, but you weren't in the woods, you were walking down the street. You had taken a wrong turn and wound up in a dead end alley."

As the doctor talked, Uryuu could almost picture it. The vision of the woods and the alley overlaid onto each other. "It was then that a gang of delinquents jumped out and attacked you. They were after your grandfather's money."

In his mind, the hollows were suddenly young men wearing white ski masks.

"He told you to run. The men didn't care about you because you hadn't seen their faces and you didn't have any money. You ran a short ways, but hid behind a dumpster and watched. Soken had tried to fight them off, but they had knives…"

Suddenly, the memory of the hollow's claws and talons piercing his grandfather became that of knives in the thugs' hands.

"Uryuu…" his father said softly to him. "You have blamed yourself all this time, but it wasn't your fault. You would have been killed too if you had tried to stop them and I couldn't have survived if I had lost both of you."

Uryuu looked up at his dad. He had tears in his eyes like he did that day. He could still see the hollow attack in his mind, but now the vision of the thugs was there too, fighting for dominance.

The doctor continued a little further. "The cops showed up then, just a little too late to save your grandfather, but they did catch those men responsible. It is much like those Shinigami in your vision that killed the hollows, but was too late to save him."

Uryuu couldn't handle this anymore. That day had been the lowest point in his life and now he was hearing that it wasn't even how he had remembered it. And then, to hear his father finally admit to grief over the situation, was too much to stand. He began to dissolve into sobs as he thought about how much he had wanted to hear his father tell him that it hadn't been his fault and that he was glad that he had survived.

His father pulled his son into an embrace and held him as he cried. "Uryuu, I know how much it hurts. I loved him very much too. Please son, let this go so that I don't have to keep losing you as well."

"You loved him…?" Uryuu muttered through his sobs.

"Of course I did," his father said as he lifted his son off of his chest and looked down at him. "He was my father and a great man."

"This is another part of his delusion, Ryuken," the doctor said. "He had to make you out to be some kind of uncaring monster so that he wouldn't have a reason to come back to the real world. You are the only thing in his life that he regrets leaving behind."

Uryuu blinked back eyes full of tears as he stared at the doctor. "You mean, he really does care?"

"Uryuu!" his father said. "Of course I care. I have always cared about you. I love you, son."

Uryuu felt numb as he felt his father pull him into another embrace. His father had never told him before that he loved him… or had he? Was this actually the way things were supposed to be? Or was this the delusion?

"I think that's enough for now," Anji said. "Uryuu, you should get some rest now…"

XXX

"Urahara!" Ichigo yelled as he approached the shop. He was carrying an unresponsive Ishida on his back. "Oi! Urahara!" he called again. Suddenly Urahara was at the entrance to the shop.

"Oh my," he said as he saw Ichigo carrying Ishida on his back. He hurried out and lifted the Quincy off of Ichigo's back. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Ichigo panted. "I went over to his place because he didn't show up for school today and found him like this. I couldn't get him to snap out of it."

"Oh dear," Urahara said as he turned and carried Ishida into the shop. "Let's see what we can do."

He brought the young man in and to one of the back rooms where he laid him out on a mat. Ichigo followed behind, face full of concern. He couldn't help but blame himself for this. He was the one that had drove Ishida away the day before. He had known that the Quincy was having problems. He never should have snapped like that.

Urahara knelt beside the Quincy and held his hands over his chest and forehead. Ichigo sat down in a corner and watched as Urahara's hands began to glow with a green light. It seemed like the shopkeeper remained like this forever as Ichigo waited impatiently.

Finally, Urahara sighed and sat back. "So?" Ichigo asked. "What's happening? Why can't we wake him?"

Urahara turned around and face Ichigo. "He's not asleep. He's completely catatonic… at least, to us. His mind is very active but he can't see or hear anything outside of himself."

"So what do we do?"

Urahara shook his head. "I don't know. Not yet, at least. There is something causing this but I can't determine what it is yet. When I do, I'll have a better idea of how to proceed." He stood up then and started to leave the room.

"Wait!" Ichigo exclaimed as he jumped up and grabbed Urahara's wrist. "You mean there's nothing that we can do for him? That's not good enough!"

"I am sorry, Kurosaki-san. But that is all that I can tell you right now. Maybe you should get a hold of Inoue and Sado-san. You have been able to bring him out of this before. It would be helpful if we could talk to him, even if it is just for a few minutes."

Ichigo stared at Urahara a moment and then nodded, "I'll get them. You just work on a solution to this."

XXX

_He loves me_… Uryuu thought as he sat alone in his small gray room. He was sitting on the bed with his legs pulled up to his chest. _He said he loves me…_

He began to wonder if maybe this world was actually the world where he had everything he wanted. Maybe he had friends and power in the other reality, but here he had his father's love and pride. That was something that he could never acquire in the other reality.

_But what is real?_ Ishida wondered. It didn't matter which world he liked better. He needed to know which one was real. Still, this one seemed to make far more sense. It seemed more logical that he was the one that was crazy rather than the other world where everything was always trying to kill him and those of Karakura.

It was far more likely that he had made up the existence of hollows and Shinigami and Quincy as a way to escape inside his mind with wild adventures rather than any of that being real. But what was real?

_"Ishida-san…"_ a voice was speaking to him again. He wanted to ignore it. He knew that if he listened to the voice, it would pull him back into the other reality. Right now, he didn't like what he had left over there. He had been responsible for a friend's injury. His best friend was furious with him. He might not ever be willing to forgive him for such a betrayal.

Uryuu bent over his legs and hugged them to his chest a little tighter.

_"Ishida-san…"_ the voice called again. It was Urahara's voice this time but it sounded a little different than the other voices had. This one felt like it was speaking directly into his mind rather than a distant call.

But the voice went away after a while just like Kurosaki's had. He had successfully ignored that other world, but was that what he should be doing?

XXX

Ichigo got a hold of both Chad and Inoue and they quickly gathered at the shop. "How is he, Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue asked when she arrived.

"He's still out of it. I can't seem to call him back this time," Ichigo said. "Urahara thinks that maybe you and Chad might have better luck," he frowned as he spoke. "I can't say that I blame him for wanting to avoid me now."

"Kurosaki-kun…" Inoue started but Ichigo cut her off.

"No, I shouldn't have been so hard on him yesterday. I lost my temper and now I can't help him."

Chad showed up then and Ichigo quickly explained everything again before leading them both back to the room where Ishida was lying. He was still lying on the mat staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Ishida-kun?" Inoue said as she came over to kneel beside him. "Ishida-kun, please wake up. You're scaring us." Her eyes began to fill with tears as she stared at his unresponsive face.

"Ishida," Chad called. "I'm all right. I don't blame you for yesterday."

"Please, Ishida-kun…" Inoue said again. "Come back to us."

XXX

Uryuu woke up in his bed in the gray room. He heard the voices again. It was Inoue and Chad this time. The sound of the sorrow in Inoue's voice was so acute that he almost wanted to respond to her. But then the memory of what his father had said yesterday came back to him.

"No," he muttered as he sat up in bed. "No, I know what I want now." He stood up and walked over to the door and knocked on it.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" he called. "Hello?"

The sound of keys in the lock reached him and he took a step back. Sado stepped into the room then and asked, "Ishida-san, is something wrong?"

Uryuu had to shake off a moment of nostalgia as he thought about the voice that had just called to him. But he shook his head, telling himself that that was just his delusion, this was the real Sado in front of him. "I want to see Dr. Anji and my father," he said. "I don't want to be here any more. I want to remember who I am."

Sado smiled at him and said, "I'll get the doctor right away." He quickly left, locking the door again behind him.

Uryuu went and sat on the edge of his bed and waited. Suddenly the voices were louder than ever.

_"Ishida-kun!"_

_"Oi! Ishida!"_

_"Ishida!"_

Suddenly he found it difficult to breathe and his head began to swim. "ISHIDA-KUN!"

With a shuddering breath, he was suddenly looking up at a tearful Inoue through her rejection field. "Ishida-kun!" she exclaimed as he blinked up at her. Her face broke into an ecstatic grin. "You came back!"

"Ishida!" Ichigo cried as his head appeared beside Inoue's. "Welcome back."

Inoue dismissed her fairies and then reached down and gripped his arm. "Ishida-kun, we were so worried about you."

"In…Inoue…" he muttered. "No… No, what happened. I… I didn't want…"

Chad was suddenly standing over them. "I brought Urahara-san," he said.

The ex-Shinigami was gently prying Inoue's grip off of the Quincy and kneeling beside him now. "Ishida-san. What happened? What did you see?" he asked urgently.

Ishida sat up and moved away from all of them. "No," he said. "I don't want to be here. Let me go back."

"Ishida-kun?" Inoue asked. "Go back where?"

"I was getting better," he told them. "If I got better I could go home. I could be with my father again."

Urahara reached out gently and put a hand on Ishida's shoulder. "Ishida-san, that wasn't real. This is where you belong."

"No!" he exclaimed as he violently shrugged the hand form his shoulder. "This… This is the lie…" he looked wildly from hurt face to hurt face. "Isn't it?" he asked in a pleading voice.

"This is real, Ishida," Ichigo said firmly. "This is where you belong, with your friends that care for you. Not with your father that rejects you."

"Friends…?" he said and looked at Ichigo and then Chad and finally Inoue. "I got you both hurt," he told Inoue and Chad. "And you hate me," he told Ichigo.

Ichigo winced and then shook his head. "No, I was angry, but I shouldn't have been. It wasn't your fault. Something is doing this to you."

"Ishida-san, listen to me," Urahara said urgently. "I don't know how to stop it yet, but you have to fight this. I think that it's some kind of virus. You will slip back into that hallucination again, probably not long from now, but you have to fight against it. I can find a cure, but if you give up on reality completely, I don't think I will be able to bring you back. Do you understand?"

Ishida stared at him wide eyes. "A virus?"

Urahara nodded. "Yes, I have a pretty good idea who gave it to you too."

"Who… who would do something like this?" Ishida asked. He was surprised how quickly his resolve to stay in the other world was evaporating now that he was there and was hearing an explanation for what was happening.

"Mayuri," Urahara said. "This is just his style. He probably wanted to study the physiological effects on a human… possibly specifically a Quincy."

"Captain Kurotsuchi?" Ichigo asked. "When could he have infected him?"

Ishida suddenly remembered what the mad captain had said about making improvements when he had healed him. "Hueco Mundo…" he breathed.

Urahara nodded, "That's right, Ishida-san. Now, please, try to hang on, all right? I promise I will find the cure, but you have to keep fighting."

"I… I don't know…" he muttered.

"Please," Inoue said. "Please, Ishida-kun. Don't leave us, ok?"

He looked at her and saw the large tears that were spilled from her eyes. He hated to see her cry and knowing that he was the one causing her this pain was too much. But was she even real?

He wanted to tell her that he would fight for her, but he heard other voices calling to him again. It was his father. But not the one from this side, the one that he wanted to be with.

_"Uryuu, I know you can hear me."_

He blinked and was looking into his father's face again. "Dad!" he exclaimed.

"Uryuu, you came back!" His father said as he pulled his son into an embrace. "I heard what you had told Sado and I came over. I was so happy and then to find you catatonic again… I thought I had lost you for good this time."

"Dad… wait… I need to know…" he pushed him away reluctantly. "I want to stay here, I do. But I need to know what is real."

Anji, who had been standing behind Ryuken as he hugged his son, stepped forward now and spoke. "Uryuu, you are making a big step just by asking that question. You've never asked that before."

"I haven't?" he said.

"No. The fact that you are wondering it means that you are finally at a point where you could let go of your delusions."

"But how do I know?" he asked. "How do I know what is real?"

"Don't you want this to be real?" His father asked.

"I do," Uryuu said quickly.

Anji nodded. "But you don't want to choose the delusion and be trapped in a world that isn't real, whether it's what you want or not. Correct?"

Uyruu nodded.

"Good," Anji said. "That's good. You're beginning to think again Uryuu. Tell me something, when you are in your world, how do you explain what you have seen here?"

"Urahara-san told me that I've been infected with a virus that is causing the hallucinations."

"A virus can't do something like this, Uryuu," his father was quick to tell his son. "I'm a doctor, I know that."

Uryuu shook his head, "No human virus, but this one was made by Kurotsuchi. A mad Shinigami scientist."

"Kurotsuchi!" Ryuken exclaimed. "Not him again!"

"No, Ryuken," Anji said as he reached out and touched Ryuken's shoulder to calm him down. "This is good. Revisiting a past villain at a time like this means the delusion is breaking down."

"What are you talking about?" Uryuu asked.

"You've fought Kurotsuchi before, haven't you Uryuu?"

He nodded.

"He was the one that your mind put all of the blame on for the death of Soken, correct?"

Uryuu nodded again. "He made sure that the hollows killed him so that he could experiment on his soul."

His father cringed, but didn't say anything.

"That's right. You needed someone to blame; someone that you could personally punish for what happened. That's why your mind invented Kurotsuchi. You needed someone other than yourself to blame. He was the manifestation of your own guilt, Uryuu."

"He… no, I fought him. I nearly killed him…" he started to argue.

"But you didn't and then he recently became an ally, didn't he?"

"To an extent…" Uryuu said but Anji cut him off.

"He helped you when you went over into the hollow world and you even allowed him to help you. I think that's when you first began to let go of your guilt, Uryuu."

Uryuu shook his head. "But that's when Urahara-san thinks that he infected me."

"Urahara…" Ryuken muttered. "The candy shop owner?"

"Yes," Uryuu said rather surprised. "You know him?"

Anji spoke up, "You've spoke of him before. I believe your father said that he owned a candy shop downtown that your grandfather used to take you to. That's where you were headed on that day, Uryuu."

His father nodded, "He's the one that heard the commotion and called the cops. He probably saved your life, son."

Uryuu shook his head. This was just too much to process. He remembered the night that Urahara had found him, bleeding to death in the rain. But now he thought that he could remember him finding him hiding behind the dumpster and taking him away from the thugs.

"I… I don't know…"

"Uryuu, please…" his father pleaded. "What sounds more real? This fantasy world where fantasy viruses are causing you to hallucinate this world; or the real, normal world where you have been psychologically scared from a horrific incident?"

"I don't know…" Uryuu muttered. "I don't know…"

XXX

"I don't know…"

"It's all right, Ishida," Ichigo's voice said as a hand came to rest on his shoulder. "Hang in there a while longer, all right?"

He looked up and met Ichigo's eyes. "Kurosaki…" he muttered. "I don't know what is real anymore," he said desperately.

"I know, Ishida. Just hold onto this. This is where you belong."

"Kurosaki…" he swallowed and looked around and saw that he and Ichigo were the only ones in the dimly lit room. It looked like it was night time again. "I'm so scared."

Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing. Ishida was admitting to fear. Not only that, he looked like he was terrified. "Ishida…" Ichigo said and then reached out for his friend. He couldn't stand to see him so defeated and frightened like that. Ishida just sat there as Ichigo pulled him into a hug.

"Ishida, I think I understand why you are so frightened," Ichigo said as he held the boy. "But you should know that seeing you afraid is the most terrifying thing that I have ever seen."

"Kurosaki…" Ishida said softly. He slowly reached his arms up and returned the hug. "Don't blame yourself, whatever happens. I know that you are truly my friend. I forgive you."

"Ishida…" Ichigo gasped as he started to pull back to look at his friend. But as he began to let go, he realized that the Quincy had gone limp. He caught him before he slumped over onto the floor. "Ishida!" he called, but it was no use, his friend had slipped away again.

XXX

"Uryuu!" his father was calling urgently to him.

"Dad…" he said when he could see him standing there, grasping his shoulders. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go this time."

"It's all right, Uryuu," Anji said gently from behind his father.

Ishida looked up to see the doctor. He was standing there, waiting patiently for Ryuken to step aside. He looked back at his father's troubled eyes and said, "I'm fine now, dad. You can let go."

He looked surprised that he was still holding his son's arms and gently released his hold as he took a step back. "What happened, Uryuu?" he asked.

Uryuu shook his head and said, "I'm not sure. I just sat down and suddenly I was there again. I spoke with Kurosaki for a moment and told him that I forgive him. I knew I couldn't just tell him goodbye without him flipping out, but I at least feel a little better about leaving him now."

"This is good, Uryuu," Dr. Anji said. "It's good that you are starting to let go. But what you need to realize is that these people aren't real. You are worried about the feelings of a fictional character."

Uryuu shook his head, "They might not be real, but they are real to me. I don't think I can let them go without some kind of closure."

Anji smiled at him. "I am very glad to hear you say that, Uryuu."

"You mean this, son?" his father asked. "You really mean to finally stay with us?"

Uryuu hesitated a moment and then nodded. "Yes, this is where I belong."

XXX

"Damn it!" Ichigo cursed as he paced back and forth in front of Urahara. "He was here. No one called him back this time, he just return; but I let him slip away again!"

Urahara sighed and said, "I am sorry, Kurosaki-san. But the more I study this virus, the more I find how very insidious it is. It buries itself deep inside the mind, and begins by altering the chemicals of the brain to make it more susceptible to believe untrue things."

"So he really could be convinced that his hallucinations are the real thing?" Ichigo asked in surprise.

Urahara nodded, "I'm afraid so. After it has altered the mind, it begins to attack the memory centers of the brain. I think that it triggers hallucinations based on thoughts and memories of the individual and the combination Ishida's imagination and dreams and external influences are fueling his hallucinations. I think that whatever he is seeing inside his mind is made up of things that he wishes for in this world and his own logical mind is making the situation plausible."

"Damn it," Ichigo cursed again. "Can't you do anything about this!"

Urahara shook his head. "Right now, I can't. I have tried everything that I can think of and nothing affects this virus enough to eradicate it. It is made up of an interesting combination of Reishi and Kishi particles. It is both of this world and the spirit world and nothing I throw at it from either world is enough to destroy it."

Ichigo stopped his pacing and face Urahara, "So what do we do!" he yelled.

"I believe the only thing that can be done at this point is to contact the one that made this virus."

"You mean Kurotsuchi," Ichigo said darkly as he clenched his fists.

Urahara nodded. "The more I study this virus, the more I am convinced that it one of his creations."

"All right," Ichigo said with determination. "When can you open a gate for me to go get him?"

Urahara stood up and said flatly, "No. You are not going this time, Kurosaki-san."

Ichigo's mouth dropped open in stunned surprise. "What… What do you mean?"

"You are not going as you are now to face Mayuri. If your powers were to give out on you when you faced him, you would be dead in a matter of moments. As it is, he has enough tricks up his sleeve that he could possibly even get the better of you even if you were at full strength."

"So what the hell are we to do!" Ichigo cried. He waved his hand back towards the room where Ishida was lying. "He's slipping away from us. I am not going to just sit by as we lose him to virus and his own delusions!"

"No, you are not," Urahara said calmly in the face of Ichigo's temper. "You are going to sit by and continue to try and keep him from giving into those delusions while I go to Soul Soceity."

Ichigo was left stunned a second time at Urahara's proclamation. "You… you're going to go to Soul Society?"

"Yes," Urahara said as he picked up his cane and started to head for the hatch that led into his underground training area. "You and the others need to stay here and keep an eye on Ishida-san. I will try to be quick."

"But… Urahara-san," Ichigo tried to argue.

"Relax, Ichigo," Urahara told him. "I know what I am doing. Remember, I was the one who taught most of those dirty tricks to Mayuri-kun and I have a plan."

"No," Ichigo said. "I'm not worried about that. I know that you can more than likely take care of him. But I thought you were banished from Soul Society. Won't it be an issue with you suddenly appearing there?"

Urahara laughed slightly. "This is far from the first time that I have sneaked back in, Ichigo. That is the least of my worries for this trip." He reached down and opened up the hatch and began to descend the steps. "Now, please do your best to convince our friend which side of reality he belongs on whenever you can. If he makes the decision to remain in his delusions, I'm not sure if a cure will be able to bring him out of it."

Ichigo nodded, "I understand. But, Urahara…"

Urahara paused again in his descent and looked up at Ichigo and said, "Yes, I know. You don't like staying behind. But trust me, this is the best way."

Ichigo sighed and then nodded. Urahara continued his descent again and was soon out of view. Ichigo stood there a moment longer before he sighed again and closed the hatch. He then walked back to the room where Ishida was still unconscious.

XXX

No matter how hard Ichigo tried, he could not get Ishida to come back around for him. He was seriously beginning to worry that they might have already lost him to the hallucinations. When morning came around again, Chad showed up to take over for Ichigo. They had decided that they would each take turns sitting with the Quincy until they had the cure.

Ichigo quickly explained to Chad what Urahara had told him that night. "If he wakes up," Ichigo said. "We have to convince him that this is reality."

Chad nodded and said, "Understood. Now, go get some sleep, Ichigo."

Ichigo hesitated a moment and then nodded, "You're right. But I think I'll just go lie down in the next room if you need me."

Chad nodded and then took a seat beside the Quincy while Ichigo went to get some sleep. The teen sat there quietly as he watched Ishida lying there. His eyes were still open and staring blankly at the ceiling above him. If it wasn't for the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, Chad would have suspected that he was dead.

"Ishida," Chad said softly after a while. "What are you seeing, Ishida?"

Chad was a little startled to see Ishida's eyes blink once, but there was no other sign that the Quincy was coming around. "Ishida?" Chad asked as he put a hand out and touched his shoulder.

Ishida blinked again and slowly turned his head towards Chad. "Sado…" he said softly. His voice came out slightly graveled as if from disuse. He seemed a little surprised at the sound of his own voice but he slowly sat up dismissing it.

"Ishida!" Chad gasped as he reached out and helped the Quincy to sit up.

"Sado, where did Kurosaki go?" Ishida asked as he looked around the empty room.

"He's sleeping in the next room," Chad explained.

Ishida nodded, "That's good…" he said.

"Ishida, you've been out of it even longer this time," Chad said. "Urahara said that the virus is trying to convince your mind that your hallucinations are real."

Ishida nodded slowly. "Yes, I know. You all want me to keep believing that this is reality, correct?"

Chad was a little taken aback by Ishida's detached tone. Ichigo had told him how scared he had seemed only the night before. Now he seemed as if he were still half asleep and nothing was really reaching him. "Ishida… this is reality," Chad started to explain.

"Oh, I know that," the Quincy said as he faced Chad. He looked at the young man for a moment before he said, "Sado, I am truly sorry for getting you hurt before."

Chad shook his head, "It wasn't a problem, Ishida. It wasn't your fault."

Ishida nodded slowly, "I know that, but if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have been hurt. Thank you, Sado. You have always looked out for me."

Chad felt rather confused at the turn this conversation was taking. "Ishida, are you all right?" Chad asked as he reached out to touch the Quincy's forehead.

Ishida pulled back from Chad's touch at first and then seemed to change his mind. He sat still as Chad put a hand against his forehead and then removed it. "You see, Sado," Ishida said. "I am fine. I am sorry that I am making you worry."

"You don't seem to be yourself, Ishida," Chad told him. "You have to believe that this is real. If you don't you might never come out of it again."

Ishida nodded, "I understand, Sado, and I intend on staying in reality."

Suddenly his eyes began to glaze over again as he began to slump over lifelessly. "Ishida!" Chad called out as he grabbed the Quincy. He held him a moment and called his name again, hoping to pull him back before he slipped too far away.

Suddenly Ichigo burst into the room. "What is it!" he demanded.

Chad was lowering the Quincy back onto the mat by then. "He came around again for a minute," Chad explained.

"He did?" Ichigo said as he walked into the room. "What did he say? Was he still frightened?"

Chad shook his head as he gently covered Ishida up with the covers again and said, "No. He seemed detached more than anything."

He quickly explained the whole conversation to Ichigo. Ichigo didn't look very happy about it. "Something is wrong," he said as he stared down at Ishida again.

"Damn it, Quincy," Ichigo muttered. "You're slipping away from us, aren't you?"

XXX

"So, Uryuu?" Dr. Anji asked as Uryuu blinked and came back around again. He was sitting on the edge of his bed just like when he had left a moment ago at the sound of Chad's voice.

"I told him that I am sorry for getting him hurt and thanked him for always helping me," Uryuu explained.

"That was your version of Sado?" his father asked.

Uryuu nodded.

Dr. Anji smile and said. "You are doing very well, Uryuu. That just leaves one left in that world you should need to let go."

Uryuu nodded again. "Yes, Inoue-san…" he said. He felt a little hesitant as he thought about it. He wasn't sure how he was going to say goodbye to her without actually saying goodbye. He was worried that she was going to be the one to realize what he was up to and he wasn't sure if he could maintain his resolve if she pressed him. He always hated to see her upset.

"I think that you have done enough for now, Uryuu," the doctor said as if sensing his reluctance. "Too much at once could put undue stress on you. How about we pick this up again in the morning?"

Uryuu nodded and said, "Yes. I think that would be easier."

"Uryuu," his father said as he stepped forward again. He knelt down in front of his son and gently took a hold of Uryuu's head in his hands. "I am so proud of you."

Uryuu could feel the slight prickle of tears behind his eyes at his father's words and sincere tone. He couldn't think of anyway to respond to his father.

After a moment, Ryuken leaned forward and kissed his son on the top of his head before standing and then walking to the door. "I'll see you again in the morning, Uryuu."

He nodded, "Good night, dad," he replied.

His father left then and Anji filed out close behind him. Uryuu sat on the edge of his bed for a moment before he climbed up it and lay down, looking up at the plain gray ceiling. "This is real…" he muttered to himself as he slowly allowed his eyes to close.

XXX

It was early evening when Inoue showed up again at the shop to begin her watch. Chad met her and explained everything that she had missed. She looked particularly troubled at what Ishida had said to both Ichigo and Chad, but didn't say anything. Chad had sent Ichigo to his own house to be with his family for dinner and he was going to go and lie down in the next room for now.

Inoue took a spot sitting beside Ishida then. It wasn't long before she started to talk to him as if he was completely aware of her presence. "Ishida-kun, I thought you might be interested in what you missed at school today." She pulled out a few books and started to rattle off some of the days lessons. Every now and then she would look up and saw that he was still unresponsive, but she would always press on as if he wasn't.

After a little while she switched from school work to just talking about her day. She told him about how Chizuru had grabbed her again that morning and the bloody nose that Tatsuki had given her because of it. She told him what she had had for lunch and went into detail about the interesting combinations of food that she had come up with to bring with her.

Finally, she started to talk about her fears. "Ishida-kun, I am very worried about you," she said softly. "Sado-kun told me what you said to him and Kurosaki-kun. I don't know if they have realized it or not, but it sounds to me like you were trying to say goodbye to them."

Ishida continued to stare blankly up at the ceiling. Inoue pressed on. "I hope that I am wrong, Ishida-kun. I don't think that I could stand it if you gave up on us. You know that we are never going to give up on you, Ishida-kun."

Finally, Ishida blinked and then looked at her for the first time that day. "Inoue-san," he said to her.

"Ishida-kun!" she exclaimed. "You've had us so worried!"

"I know," he told her. He didn't seem like he wanted to bother with sitting up this time. He simply turned his head and continued to stare straight above him. "I could hear what you were saying, Inoue-san."

Inoue swallowed, not sure if she wanted to hear him say that. "Ishida-kun… why didn't you answer me?" she asked quietly.

He was silent a while. For a moment, Inoue feared that he had slipped away again. But he sighed and then started talking again. "I was afraid," he finally said. "I knew that you would figure out what was going on and I was afraid that you would break my resolve."

Inoue was silent a moment. Ishida finally turned his head and looked at her. She had a large tear rolling down the side of her face as she stared down at him. "It's true then," she said as she tried to keep the waver out of her voice. "You have been saying goodbye. You mean to leave us, don't you?"

He turned on his side and started to reach up to her, "Inoue-san…"

"No!" She cried as she jumped up. "No. I won't let you!" she said as tears began to spill freely from her eyes. "You want to say goodbye to us so you can let us go easier. But I won't let you say goodbye!"

Suddenly Chad burst into the room, "Inoue-san!" he called but then stopped and froze in the doorway when he caught sight of the scene in front of him. Inoue was standing over Ishida with tears streaming down her face while he looked up at her with grief written in his expression.

"Inoue-san…" Ishida breathed.

"I told you no!" she snapped. "I won't believe it. I can't believe it! The Ishida-kun I know would never give up like this. You are giving in to what would be easier and have given up on discovering what is real."

"In…Inoue-san…" Chad said in confusion as he came further into the room.

Ishida suddenly noticed his presence and looked up at him. He met Chad's eyes for a moment and then quickly looked back at Inoue. "Please, Inoue-san…" he started.

She shook her head violently causing her hair to wave around her. "I won't give in Ishida-kun. I am not going to make this easy for you. If you do this I… I will never forgive you!"

He stared at her for a moment before he suddenly went limp again and collapsed against the mat.

"Inoue-san," Chad said again as he came up behind her wondering what had just happened.

"Oh Sado-kun!" she suddenly wailed and turned around. She buried her head into his chest as he awkwardly reached out and wrapped an arm around her. "He's leaving us…" she muttered into his chest. "Ishida-kun has been saying goodbye to us without actually saying it, hoping that we wouldn't try and talk him out of it."

Chad's eyes suddenly became large as he looked down at Ishida over Inoue's head. He knew that the Quincy had been acting funny the last time they had talked but he hadn't suspected that he was trying to say goodbye to them.

"Oi!" they distantly heard Ichigo's voice outside. "How's it go…" he poked his head in and saw Inoue still clinging to Chad as she cried. He looked past the two and saw Ishida crumpled over as if he were a Marinette puppet with his strings cut.

"What the hell happened?" he demanded as he marched into the room.

Inoue pulled away from Chad and looked up at Ichigo. She sniffed and then wiped the tears off of her face with a hand. After a moment she steadied herself and explained everything in as calm a tone as she could muster.

As she spoke, Ichigo became visibly more and more upset. Finally, when she finished, he said in a soft but intense voice, "You two go."

"Kurosaki-kun…" Inoue said, fearing what Ichigo was going to do in this state.

"I promise not to hurt him, Inoue," Ichigo said. "But please, leave now."

The two hesitated a moment before they slowly turned and left Ichigo alone with the disconnected Ishida. Ichigo stood still in the center of the room for a while staring at his friend. His fists were clenched tight and his jaw locked as he took deep breaths.

Finally he released his jaw and spoke to Ishida. "How could you, you damn Quincy?" he asked his softly. "How could you possibly stand to make her cry like that?"

He walked forward and then knelt down beside Ishida. He reached down and picked the boy up off of the floor and the laid him back down on the mat. "Ishida," Ichigo said to him once he was lying on his back again. "I can't believe that you would have thought that you could give up on us like that, Quincy."

There was a slight twitch in Ishida's face but that was all the reaction that Ichigo received. "So, you can still hear me then…" Ichigo said.

He sat back and stared down at Ishida a moment again. "What is it that you have created in there, Ishida? What is so great inside your mind that you have decided to abandon your friends? What is it that you are willing to sacrifice reality to hold on to… Uryuu?"

There was another slight twitch in the Quincy's expression.

"You are logical, Uryuu," Ichigo continued. "Far more bright and logical than I am. So how is it that I can see that you have given up on determining what is real and what isn't and have simply chosen the better place and you can't see that? Because I know that if you realized this, then there is no way that you would have made such a rash decision."

"Leave me alone, Kurosaki…" Ishida breathed without a change in his expression.

"No!" Ichigo snapped at him. "You saw it, didn't you? You saw the pain that you caused Inoue. There is no way that I can let you get away with that."

Ishida sighed and then turned his head to meet Ichigo's eyes. "How can I hurt someone who isn't real?" he asked.

"Bullshit!" Ichigo snapped as he slammed his hand down beside Ishida's head. "That is utter Bullshit and you know it! If you truly believed that none of us existed then you wouldn't be talking to me now!"

"Kurosaki…"

"No, Ishida! I had thought that you were the strongest person that I know, but clearly I was very wrong. How could you give up on us? How could you even give up on finding out the truth? A bright new world comes along that is made up of things that you have wanted and suddenly you don't even care which world is real!"

"What would you choose, Kurosaki?" Ishida asked. "If you were shown a world that everything that you had wanted and was just as plausible as the world you knew, what would you choose?"

"I don't know," Ichigo said softly. But he quickly chimed back in, "But I do know that I would first make damn sure that I was choosing the real one before I made my decision. Is that what you have done?"

Ishida stared at him a long while before he slowly turned his head and returned to staring up at the ceiling. "Leave me alone, Kurosaki. I don't want to listen to you anymore."

Ichigo didn't know what to do. It was clear that Ishida was not going to listen to him anymore. "Inoue is right," he said as he stood up and looked at Ishida as he started to drift away again. "You are unforgivable."

He turned on his heel then and left the Quincy lying alone in the darkened room as he finally completely slipped back into his head.


	3. Chapter 3

Act III

Opening his eyes in his cell again, Uryuu heave a sigh. He was alone in this room just like he had been in the other one. It had hurt to hear both Ichigo and Inoue tell him that he was unforgivable, but if they weren't even real in the first place, what difference did that make?

Inoue's voice suddenly echoed in his head, "…_You are giving in to what would be easier and have given up on discovering what is real."_

He heaved another sigh as he turned on his side in his bed and tried to forget about the whole thing. But it was Ichigo's voice that chimed in as he did this. "…_I would first make damn sure that I was choosing the real one before I made my decision..."_

_Was that what he had done?_ Uryuu wondered. It was true that this world was more inviting with both the love of his father and the lack of strife. He knew that a part of him would miss the adventure and excitement of being a Quincy but he also knew that it was beginning to wear on him. He was still quite young and had already been through so much...

At least, it seemed like he had. But if all of that wasn't real…

Uryuu pushed off from his bed in frustration and sat up. He threw his legs off the side of the bed and sat there with his head in his hands for a moment. He knew if he was being completely honest with himself, his decision to stay in this reality was largely based on his desire to be there rather than trying to figure out what was real. But what did it really matter? If he stayed there and it was not actually real, would it really make any difference for him?

Sure, he would be disappointing his friends, but he wouldn't know the difference. For once, maybe he could even be happy.

_"I will never forgive you…"_ Inoue's voice whispered in his thoughts again.

_No,_ Ishida thought as he dropped his hands and stood up. _Even if this is where I want to be, I need to know what is real. If Inoue-san is real, then I can't hurt her like this. I swore to protect her and keep her from feeling sad. I can't just choose where I would prefer to be_.

XXX

Ichigo was walking through the shop with every intention of leaving. He couldn't sit there and watch as someone who he had thought was his friend just decided that he was no longer real. He had put up with a lot from that Quincy, but this was just going too far. He had meant it when he told Ishida that he would not forgive him for making this stupid decision.

But Ichigo wasn't able to make it all the way out of the shop. As he was passing by the hatch to the basement, it suddenly was thrown open and Urahara climbed out from below. He was struggling a little with something in his hand and appeared to be out of breath.

"Urahara!" Ichigo exclaimed as he reached out and helped the man from the ladder. Urahara climbed out with Ichigo's assistance and immediately sat down on the edge of the hatch while he caught his breath. "What happened?" Ichigo asked him.

Urahara raised a hand to Ichigo indicating to give him a moment. Ichigo eyed the strange jar like thing that Urahara was gripping in his right hand. It had a cloth cover over it so Ichigo couldn't really see what it was.

"Well," Urahara breathed after a moment. "That was certainly an interesting and valuable trip." He looked up then and gave Ichigo a grin.

Ichigo scowled and looked away as he said, "Well it was probably still pointless. It seems that Ishida has decided against reality."

Urahara's grin suddenly turned into a frown. "That's hard to believe," he said.

Ichigo scoffed and said, "Well, he told me himself that he didn't want to listen to me anymore. He even made Inoue cry and still decided to stay inside his head!"

Urahara stood up and sighed, "Then my trouble may have been for nothing. If he won't come back out of his head, even switching the virus off won't restore him. He has to decide what is real and what isn't. All I can do is make sure that the virus doesn't keep trying to pull him back into his mind."

"Well," Ichigo said as he turned and started to leave again. "Thanks for trying, Urahara. I guess we didn't really know him after all."

"Ichigo!" Urahara snapped. He sat the item down on the ground and came around to stand in front of Ichigo, blocking his path. "Aren't you giving up just as easily as he did?" he asked the stunned Shinigami. "You expect Ishida to fight against his own mind when you aren't even willing to stay with him? It's you and the others that need to be there to snap him out of this. I can only fix the cause, but I am not the solution!"

Ichigo stared at Urahara a moment before he slowly lowered his head and then nodded, "You're right. I was just so frustrated with him that I guess I just gave up." He turned around and looked back in the direction that he had left Ishida. "I'm going back, Urahara. And you better be ready to cure him as soon as I drag him back because he doesn't seem to have much fight left in him."

"That's the Kurosaki I know!" Urahara said as he walked over and picked the jar up from the floor. "Give me just a little while to process all this information and I should have the solution very soon." He disappeared into the house then.

Ichigo squared himself off again and went back to Ishida's room. He wasn't going to give up on his Quincy friend. He was far too stubborn.

XXX

"Uryuu, what's wrong?" Ryuken asked when he entered his son's room again and saw Ishida pacing.

He glanced at Ryuken and then continued his pacing as he talked. "I need to know," he said. "I have to know which is real. I know that you're going to tell me that this is, and that's what I want to hear, but I have to know the truth."

"Uryuu, I thought that you had already decided that this is real…" Ryuken said as he rushed over to his son.

Ishida shrugged his father's hand off of him, fearing that any more proof of how much his father cared for him in this reality would influence his decision. He had to remain objective. "No, I had really decided that this was where I wanted to be; not that this is reality. But I can't just choose which I prefer… I have to choose the right one. I can't just leave my friends if this isn't real." He paused and looked at Ryuken and said. "You do understand, don't you?"

Ryuken looked at Ishida for a while and then nodded, "I do. I know how important those delusions have become to you, Uryuu. But this is where you belong. I don't know how else to prove it to you. Both Dr. Anji and I have explained all of the issues and have given you the answers that you seek. What more do you want?"

"Proof," Ishida said as he returned to his pacing. Moving helped him to keep his head clear of thinking about the emotional implications of his situation. "I have to have proof."

Ryuken watch Ishida pace a few more times before he sighed and said, "Of course you would want the one thing that I can't give you, Uryuu. If you aren't sure that any of this is real, how could you ever believe a single thing that I say or show you?"

Ishida paused and looked at Ryuken. He was right, after all. There was really no way to prove which was real and which wasn't. He only had the emotional implications to go on for this. And that simply wasn't good enough.

_"Ishida,"_ Ichigo's voice whispered in the back of his mind. _"Come on you stupid Quincy. You aren't getting rid of me that easy._" Ishida put his hands to his head and tried to block the sound out. He just wanted both Ryuken and Ichigo to leave him alone for a moment to think. _"Ishida!_" Ichigo's voice persisted.

"Uryuu?" Ryuken called and reached out for Ishida again.

"Why can't you both leave me alone?" Ishida muttered as he started to collapse to the floor. He both felt Ryuken grab a hold of him and the solid mat underneath him. He blinked and found himself back at the shop, looking up at a worried Ichigo.

"I thought you weren't coming back, Quincy," Ichigo said with a slight grin.

"Neither did I," Ishida grumbled as he looked around. It felt so real… but so did the hospital. "I don't suppose you have any proof to give me either…" he muttered as started to sit up. He felt quite stiff and sore as he did so. He knew he had been spending more time in the other reality lately so it would stand to reason that he was getting stiff here.

He wondered if he would feel the same over there if he spent more time in this reality. Maybe that would be the proof he was looking for.

"Proof?" Ichigo asked. "I told you already what's going on. Urahara is about to figure out a cure for you but you have to choose where you want to be for it to work."

"That could be a problem," Ishida said. He looked up at Ichigo and saw that he wasn't as angry with him as he had been last time. Ichigo was wearing that same expression that he had the whole time that he was in Soul Society when he was determined to save Kuchiki-san. This was the Kurosaki that he knew. This was the determination that Ishida knew the Shinigami was capable of. The determination that said that it didn't really matter what Ishida chose because he was not going to let leave.

"This is real… isn't it?" Ishida asked in wonder. It was as if everything finally fell into place. It didn't matter that he wanted to be in that other world. This is where he belonged. This is what felt right.

"W…what did you say?" Ichigo ask, slightly stunned at what Ishida had just said.

"This is real," Ishida repeated as he looked around the room as if he could finally see clearly for the first time. "This is where I belong."

"Y…yes," Ichigo stammered, surprised at the sudden shift. "Ishida, what… what happened? I thought you wanted proof?"

Ishida turned and looked at Ichigo again and reached up to fix his glasses only to find that they weren't on his face. "I just know…" he said. And he did. Suddenly he knew without a doubt that this was where he was supposed to be.

And just as suddenly as this revelation came, he felt himself being pulled back inside his mind. He started to pitch forward as he gasped out, "No… no, not again."

"Ishida, hang on!" Ichigo called out as he grabbed a hold of the Quincy and held him as he struggled against whatever force was trying to claim his mind again. "Just remember where you belong. Urahara will have the cure soon."

Those were the last words that Ishida heard from Ichigo before he blinked and found himself no longer in the Shinigami's arms, but Ryuken's.

"No…" he said with a shake of his head. "No, I can't keep this up…" he was feeling exhausted. He hadn't realized before how tired all of this switching was making him but he realized now that he was severely weakening every time he went from one reality to another.

"Uryuu, it's all right. I'm here," Ryuken said to him.

"No, you're not," Ishida muttered as he tried to push Ryuken away from him. "I know now. I figured it out. This isn't real. This is created by that virus Kurotsuchi planted in me."

"Uryuu…" Ryuken said.

"Don't worry, Ryuken," Dr. Anji said. Ishida jerked, surprised that the doctor was there as well. He looked up at the man that was approaching him. This man didn't look quite like the image of Dr. Anji that he had seen before. In fact, he looked more like someone that he had seen somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place who or where. "He's not going to leave us again," the doctor said as he waved something in his hand at Ishida. It was a circle of wires that Ishida did not like the look of. Anji motioned to someone else and suddenly Sado as an orderly was there, grabbing a hold of Ishida and pulling him up off the floor.

Ishida struggled against the vice like grip as he was dragged back over to the bed. "Please calm down, Ishida-san," Sado told him gently even as he muscled Ishida onto the bed. "This is for your own good."

"That's right, Uryuu-kun," Anji said as he came to stand on the other side of the bed.

Ishida struggled weakly as Sado pinned his arms and deftly bound him in the restraints on the bed. "No, no." he gasped. "Please, Sado, let me go. I can't stay here."

"You have no choice any longer, Quincy," Anji said as he held the wire circlet up again.

"W…what did you call me?" Ishida gasped as Sado finished the final restraint, securely pinning him to the bed.

"Uryuu," Anji said. But Ishida saw the slight worried look in the doctor's eyes. He had just made a mistake and he knew it.

"No," Ishida said. "You called me Quincy…" then he knew where he had seen that face before and now he knew that he also recognized the voice. "It's you…" he breathed as he stared at Dr. Anji… no it wasn't anyone named Anji. "Kurotsuchi."

Anji frowned a second and then he shrugged and smiled a sickening grin at Ishida. "So, you finally saw through it, have you Quincy?"

"You bastard!" Ishida spat at him as he started to struggle again. "It has been you all along. You've been experimenting on me just as you did my grandfather!"

"Uryuu!" Ryuken gasped.

Kurotsuchi sighed and then waved his hand. Suddenly both Ryuken and Sado disappeared from the room. "They were getting rather tiresome, after all," he said. "But I don't need them any more. I finally have you completely under my control."

"No you don't," Ishida said. "I know this isn't real. I know the truth now; you can't mess with my mind any longer."

"Well, well Quincy. That might be what you think. But we shall see. You see…" he bent over now, bring the circlet down towards Ishida's head. "You can no longer leave this place. I've locked your mind in here with me. We are going to have a very long time together to explore just how much control you think you actually have."

Ishida's eyes grew large as he tried to struggle free again. He didn't know what that circlet was, but he knew that he did not want it placed on his head. "You freak," he told Kurotsuchi. "It doesn't matter if I never get out. I am never going to give in to you or any of your delusions."

"No?" Kurotsuchi drawled as he leaned back slightly. He seemed to be considering something a moment and then shrugged. "Oh well, we shall see then." He swiftly placed the circlet on Ishida's head.

There was a sudden spike of pain coursing through Ishida's body. But before he was able to cry out, the pain stopped and he opened his eyes. He was looking up at Urahara's grinning face. He was back in the shop again and he could just see Ichigo, Sado, and Inoue hovering behind the ex-captain.

"Welcome back, Ishida-san," Urahara said as he leaned back and allowed his friends to descend on him.

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"I…Inoue-san," he gasped.

"Good job, Quincy," Ichigo said to him when Inoue finally released him.

"Aye," Chad said with a nod beside Ichigo.

"But… how?" Ishida asked as he looked from one of his friends to the other.

"It was Urahara," Ichigo said.

Ishida looked over to where Urahara was standing now and the shopkeeper gave a shrug. "Sorry about that pain for a moment," Urahara said. "But I needed to give you a bit of a jolt to take care of that virus of Mayuri-kun's."

"So that's what…"

"_Ishida-kun!"_ Inoue's voice echoed in the back of Ishida's mind.

He paused and then turned and accusing glare on those around him before standing up, despite protests from the teens. He faced off directly to Urahara then and said, "Good try, Kurotsuchi. But I told you, you can't control me any longer."

Urahara's grinning face suddenly dropped as he said, "Ishida-san, I think you're still a little confused.

"Ishida-kun. It's all right. You're back with us," Inoue pleaded with him as she came over and grabbed his hand.

He snatched his hand free from her grasp as if it burned him. He took an angry step towards Urahara's form.

_"Ishida!" _first Ichigo's voice, then Sado's called to him.

"Give it up, Kurotsuchi. The only way that you will ever be able to gain control over me is if you were to remove my friends first and you are too much of a coward to challenge them."

With a scowl, Urahara's face melted into Kurotsuchi's. "Don't be too sure about that, Quincy," he said. Everything around him began to fade then until he was standing in blackness. "Don't ever let your guard down, Quincy…" Kurotsuchi's voice echoed in the dark. "I will have you for myself one day."

_"Ishida-kun!"_

"_Ishida!"_

_ "Come on Quincy!" _

Ishida gasped and suddenly sat up straight. Hands were catching him as he started to pitch over again with a head rush and voices of greeting met his ears as the darkness faded from his eyes. Finally he blinked and he saw that he was surrounded by his friends. And this time, he knew that this was real. He could feel it.

"Welcome back, Ishida-san," Urahara's voice said.

Ishida cringed a moment because that was exactly what he had heard from the fake Urahara a moment ago. But when he looked up at the shopkeeper, he knew that this was really him. That silly grin juxtaposed with those dark, sparkling eyes could not be faked. He was back where he belonged again.

"Ishida-kun," Inoue's voice pulled his attention. He turned and looked at her. Tears were beginning to brim at the edges of her large eyes. "I… I'm so sorry, Ishida-kun," she said with a quivering lip.

"Inoue-san," he said, confused for a moment for what she could possibly be sorry. Then he knew that she felt bad for yelling at him before. "Inoue-san, no. You were right. I deserved everything you said," he told her and found himself reaching out to her. He surprised both of them when he was the one that pulled her into an embrace. "Thank you, Inoue-san," he told her softly. "You said exactly the things I needed to hear."

It only took a moment for Inoue's shock to wear off and she quickly returned his embrace, hugging him tightly. "I'm so glad you're back, Ishida-kun," she told him with a slight quaver in her voice from the suppressed tears.

"Yeah," Ichigo said as she finally released Ishida from her hold. "Good to see that you finally got it through your thick skull where you belong."

Ishida sighed and reached up to fix his glasses but caught himself this time before his hand reached his nose. They were still absent. Suddenly Inoue was placing them in his hand. He gave her a slightly embarrassed but grateful smile as he slipped them on his face. "Yes. I was a bit confused for a while, but thanks to all of you, I figured out where I was supposed to be."

"I'm glad to see that my efforts didn't go to waste," Urahara said.

"Urahara," Ichigo said as he turned around and saw that the shopkeeper was about to leave. "How exactly did you get that cure out of Mayuri?"

XXX

Nemu was walking up to her father's lab when she heard him let out a frustrated howl of rage. She knew that he had been working on some project that had involved the Quincy and she couldn't help but feel just slightly glad to hear that exclamation of frustration from Mayuri-sama.

For the first time in her life, Nemu turned and left her father to vent his frustration at a failed experiment on something other than her.

"How!" Kurotsuchi screamed as he pounded his fists into his desk. "How the hell could that man have found a cure!" With a vicious sweep of his arm, he knocked all the contents of his desk onto the floor.

He got up from his chair and started to pace the room. "I know I fixed that barrier. He shouldn't have been able to cross. Not without draining nearly all of his energy and then he would have been no match for me."

Suddenly Kurotsuchi paused in his pacing and spun on the spot. He stormed out of his lab and down the hall. All of his underlings that he passed cringed out of his way or quickly ducked down another hall to avoid any contact with the obviously irate and unstable captain.

Finally he came to the room that he was headed for and he knew as soon as he entered that his former captain had been in there. There was an unmistakable feeling to the room that set Mayuri's nerves on edge.

With a growl of rage, Mayuri went over to the complicated console in the center of the room and punched in his own complex code. Suddenly a circular slot slid open on the console and an empty disk popped out. He stared at the empty spot for a moment before he let out a scream of utter rage that nearly his entire division heard and knew that no one wanted to come in contact with their captain that day.

XXX

Urahara gave Ichigo's query a shrug before he replied, "I just borrowed a few of Mayuri-kun's memories is all. I'll give them back… eventually." With that cryptic response he turned and left the friends alone in the room to celebrate Ishida's return to sanity.

A/n: Sorry to anyone who hasn't seen the movie Fade to Black. You won't get what it is that I was alluding to that Urahara stole from Mayuri. Basically Mayuri keeps what looks like a brain in a jar that is a back up of all of his memories. Instead of going up against Mayuri, Urahara just stole his memories and figured out a cure from that… clever Urahara


End file.
